08
31
05
The Black Man Loots, the White Folks Find
Thanks to alevo for sending this in. Media coverage of Katrina saw these two images posted with the bylines you see underneath them:
A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005.
Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The two pictures together in their original contexts can be seen here.
August 31st, 2005 at 12:02 pm
There’s a lively exchange on the subjest of these photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewall/38725768/
Despite all opinions to the contrary – this is biased news copy.
The context of the photos (showing images from the social aftermath of Katrina) is devoid of any link to the immediate events that preceded the photo – we really don’t know how either of the characters in these photos received the food they are shown carrying. The fact is, the Associated Press mad a concious choice to call the first man a “looter.” This is a loaded term in any context. Given the fact that these citizens are in a state of disaster – and that is presumably the over-arching message that these photos seek to convey – it may have been more sensitive, and ethically appropriate (Ade you’re winning me over on Jouranlistic ethics), for the news copy to have read that “people were gathering food.”
“Gathering” does not carry the weighty rhetorical assumptions that looting carries. Regardless of the character’s race, this was a tasteless choice of words. In the coming days, watch the American coverage versus other media outlets. It will doubtless be more sensationalized: MOBS of people; LOOTERS ransack stores; police LOOSE CONTROL; etc. etc.